The Gathering (16 page)

Ian folded his arms across his chest.

"If you must know, yes."

"I must know."

Grant began to laugh, but turned it into a cough as his wife turned her head to give him the quiet-down look.
 
She turned back to her son, reached up and straightened out his collar.
 

"Never mind us, Ian.
 
Just have a wonderful time."

Suddenly there was another knock on the door.
 
Chris and Tanner were standing there.

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Turner."

They bowed, as was now the custom.

"No pretense, Boys.
 
I suspect you're looking for my son.
 
He's here."

They walked in and clasped hands.

"We hate to run, but we have to go and set up."

Chris walked to the door.

“Ian, you coming?"

Ian nodded and turned to his mom.
 
He leaned down and kissed her cheek.

"You look great!
 
See you later."

Ellen shooed her son and the Stark boys out, but stood wistfully looking after them, lost in her own world.
 
She felt Grant's arms wrap around her.
 
She sighed.

"They grow up so fast.
 
My little boy is a man."

"Yeah."

Grant kissed his wife on the cheek.

"We have to go now, Darlin'.
 
They're going to start the evening festivities."

"How do I look?
 
You didn't even notice."

"Yeah, I did.
 
I always do.
 
Beautiful.
 
You look beautiful."

Ellen smacked her husband's hand and stepped towards the door.
 

"C'mon, Liar."

Grant smiled.
 
He wasn't lying; she was a beautiful woman.
 

As they walked out the door, they ran into Aaron and Lorraine Levine.
 
They hugged and greeted one another, and then they took off to Donagan's Pub.

21

Kaley was on the main stage, setting up musical instruments with James Tippen.
 
James always got nervous before a performance and the fact that the other Stark children were nowhere to be seen, left him with knots in his stomach.
 
Kaley glanced over at him and smiled.

“You’re going to give yourself an ulcer.”

“They do it on purpose.
 
I know it!
 
Every time!” he said.

Kaley took sheet music and placed it on the piano cabinet and several music stands, shaking her head.

Not far from the main stage, Sara, Coeli and the three youngest Stark children were standing at a booth, looking at jewelry.
 
The normal members of the Sara Squad were following from a distance and metaphorically drooling on their shoes every time Sara tossed her waist length blond tresses.
 

Coeli just looked at her and smiled.
 
She had felt silly about her jealousy when it came to Sam Hearst.
 
She and Sara had always been close and she realized that no matter how much she liked him, if Sam liked Sara, she would be happy for them.
 
She didn't know why these emotions came on so quickly.

“What do you think?”

Coeli was shaken from her thoughts as Sara held up a pair of silver earrings with opals and abalone on them.
 
Coeli touched them with her fingers and cocked her head.

“I like them.
 
Pretty.”

“Yeah, I thought so.”

Brandon and Lisa Stark were each holding one of Amanda’s hands and getting very annoyed, but not nearly as annoyed as Amanda.
 

"Let go!
 
I'm not a baby."

“C’mon!
 
I want to practice and Manda's getting twitchy,” yelled Brandon.

Sara and Coeli looked over at the children and Coeli put her finger up to motion that it would only be one more minute.
 
Brandon stomped his foot.
 
Sara turned and looked at them, which made them momentarily stop.
 
Brandon's shoulders slumped.

“What’s the matter, Little Man?”

Brandon turned around and realized he and his sisters now stood in the shadow of Scott Forrester and Sam Hearst.
 
Brandon looked up.

“We have to set up and they just want to buy jewelry and we’re not supposed to go off by ourselves cause we have Amanda.”

Brandon pointed to his sisters and the young men looked over.
 
Scott slapped Sam on the back and looked over at him, smiling.

"Here's your chance, Red."

 
Scott then noticed that Sam wasn’t looking at Sara Stark, but rather her raven-haired sister.
 

“What are you doing?
 
Why are you watching Coeli?”

“Huh? Oh, I hadn’t realized how grown up she was now.
 
Yeah, let’s go, now or never, right?”

Scott and Sam walked over to the girls, which caused great concern among the members of the Squad.
 
Sam slipped quietly behind Sara and slyly glanced over her shoulder to see what she was looking at.
 
He noticed the earrings and a few bracelets that she had in her hands and he could smell the flowers in her hair.
 
Again he felt himself drawn to look at Coeli who had now noticed him and he found himself looking into the most beautiful charcoal eyes he had ever seen, the same eyes he had seen that morning during the attack.
 
He stared for a minute until he noticed that Sara was now looking at them.

“Hello, Sam, Scott.
 
How are you boys?”

Sam looked at Sara and realized he no longer felt the knot in his stomach.
 
For so long he had done nothing but dream about Sara Stark and here he was, completely uninterested.
 
He smiled at her.

“Hi, Sara.
 
Good.”

Sara looked at Scott.
 
He had been tying a knot in his sleeve, but noticed that she was waiting for a response and looked up.

"Oh, yeah, hey.
 
Good."

Sara glanced at Coeli, who was now trying to look busy, and then she turned back to the boys.

“Ok, guys, what do think?
 
Which one of these should I get?”

Sam and Scott looked at the jewelry and then each other.

“They both look great,” Sam said with a shrug.

Scott rubbed the back of his neck.
 
He still had a bit of pain there, but he looked at the earrings.

“I like those.”

Sam looked at his great hulking friend and smiled.
 
Sara turned around and proceeded to buy the earrings.
 
Sam once again looked at Coeli, who was looking at him.
 
He smiled at her and she smiled back.

“Hi, Coeli.”

“Hi.”

Sara turned back around and smiled brightly at Sam and Scott.

“So, are you boys going to the main stage?”

They nodded and Sam crossed his arms and smiled at Sara and then heard an enormous sigh from over his shoulder as Brandon and the girls looked angrier by the minute.
 

Coeli looked at the sky and then grabbed Scott’s wrist to see his watch.

“Oh, by the gods!
 
C’mon we’re late!”

The crowd was overwhelming as Coeli looked around.
 
She turned and looked at Sara and raised her hands in defeat.
 
Sara stepped forward and took the young men by their arms.

“How about a little help, Guys?
 
We have to get the kids to the stage.”

Scott shrugged and stepped forward, scooping all three kids into his enormous arms.
 
They all laughed and shrieked as he ran through the crowd with children.
 
Coeli followed closely, but turned to see Sara take Sam’s arm as they walked through the remaining open path leading to the stage.
 
She turned back around and tried to focus on her songs.
 
Once again she felt the green monster raise its ugly head and felt her face getting hot.

James Tippen was now sitting on the steps leading to the stage, hyperventilating into a bag, when a great hulk of a young man brought the Stark children to him.

“You’re late! You’re all late!
 
Where are those other twins?!”

As if on cue, Chris and Tanner walked from the opposite direction with Ian Turner.

“Right here.”

“Yo.”

Kaley turned to see Ian, who gazed right into her eyes and smiled.
 
She felt herself smile back and then turned around as she felt herself begin to blush.

"Stop it, Stupid,"
she thought to herself.

Sam and Sara were talking as they walked up the path and as Sam walked Sara over to the steps, she leaned over and kissed his cheek.
 
He felt odd and looked over at Coeli, who was trying desperately not to be angry as she watched from the corner of her eye.

James Tippen's breathing was beginning to normalize again.

“Ok, three left.”

From the direction of the castle, Brian Stark came running over with the Turner boys and Joe Levine.

“I’m here.”

"Me, too."

Rebecca came running from the opposite direction with Rachel Levine, Chelsea Hearst and Hannah Turner, who ran up on stage to hug Coeli and Sara hello, before running back down.

James turned to Kaley, who was now trying desperately not to laugh. The defeated look in his eyes was almost more than she could deal with, but before he could speak of his anguish, they heard a familiar voice.

“Ok, I’m here.”

Alisha and Vance arrived at the stage and James looked completely relieved.
 
He stood up and clapped his hands.

“Ok, everyone, places for tuning and practice.
 
Please, your mother will be here shortly.”

Vance kissed Alisha and all the friends told each other they would see them after they were done.
 
Kaley felt a hand on her wrist.
 
She turned to see Ian next to her.